The IBM work centered on Abidjan, where 539 large buses are supplemented by 5,000 mini-buses and 11,000 shared taxis. The IBM researchers studied call records from about 500,000 phones with data relevant to the commuting question.
Mobility data is created when someone uses a phone for a call or text message. That action is registered on a cell-phone tower and serves as a report on the user’s general location somewhere within the tower’s radius. The person’s movement is then ascertained as the call is transferred to a new tower or when a new call is made that connects to a different tower.
While the data is rough—and of course not everyone on a bus has a phone or is using it—routes can be gleaned by noting the sequence of connections. And IBM and other groups have found that these mobile phone “traces” are accurate enough to serve as a guide to larger population movements for applications such as epidemiology and transportation (see “Big Data from Cheap Phones.”)
The re-routing data could help trim transit times by as much as 10 percent. Neat. (ht Hacker News)
» SFB says: Hate to correct you back, pal, but the call shown in the clip we posted earlier is the first GSM call—which the post specifically states. :) GSM is a specific kind of technology for making cell phone calls, first launched in Europe with this phone call right here (which is from 1991, by the way), and currently used in the U.S. by AT&T and T-Mobile, among others. The first cell phone call was made 40 years ago using analog technology by a Motorola engineer. — Ernie @ SFB
Sure, you may have known that the first cell phone call was made 40 years ago today, but did you know that the first GSM call was made by the prime minister of Finland? More fun details here.
Note to self: When faced with a similar situation, let the iPhone 5 go.
I’ve seen the future, and its name is … whatever the name of its phone is.
According to a new study, commissioned by device warranty provider Squaretrade, approximately 51 percent of broken smartphones are damaged inside the phone owner’s home. We’ve posted a portion of the accompanying infographic, depicting the most common household smartphone “danger zones”. So how does Squaretrade’s report stack up against your own usage? Whose kitchen has the highest kill/death ratio? source
Put down the phone and walk! Teen pedestrian injuries on rise
(Photo: James Whitaker / Getty Images)
Many of us have done it — checked our phones to read a new text or send a quick tweet as we stroll down the street. It only takes a few seconds, right? And while we know we should watch where we’re going, we think, worst case: we’ll bump into the person in front of us, or trip on the sidewalk.
But experts are blaming texting and walking on the rising number of pedestrian injuries and deaths among teens. Walking safely, they say, is, in fact, a two way street: it requires the focused attention of both pedestrians and drivers.
True story: A New Jersey town actually banned this practice.
A question raised by Richard Thanki, a wireless consultant who used to work for Ofcom. GigaOm summarizes:
This isn’t a new concept by any means – operators like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are now planning their first small cell deployments with an aim of implementing multitechnology heterogeneous networks in the future. But while their plans include Wi-Fi to varying degrees, those operators are still leaning heavily on small cells built over licensed spectrum they own and control, which to Thanki makes absolutely no sense.
“For example a cellular picocell costs from $7,500 to $15,000 whereas a much higher capacity carrier-grade Wi-Fi access point costs around $2,000,” Thanki wrote. “The cost of a Wi-Fi chipset for a consumer device is around $5, whereas 3G cellular chipsets costs around $30.
Thanki specifically cites the rise of so-called “super Wi-Fi” technology, which could help reach rural areas much more easily than current Wi-Fi can. He suggests that TV “white spaces” — i.e. the parts of the local TV spectrum not being used to show “Seinfeld” reruns — get used for wireless access. Fascinating. (ht Hacker News)
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Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Exclusive: How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the...
cnet:
This new Facebook phone: Why would anyone want one?
Rumors have it that the social network is again working on some sort of phone. But what could Facebook put into that phone to make it a must-buy?
What would you like to see in a Facebook phone?
A screensaver with Mark Zuckerberg’s face constantly staring at us.
» Blackberry addicts, don’t go to Fort Lee, N.J.: In what’s perhaps the first ordinance of its kind in the country, the city is aggressively taking on people who attempt to multitask while walking down the street, citing three fatal pedestrian-related accidents in 2012 so far. ”It’s a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not aware,” said police chief Thomas Ripoli, whose department has handed out 117 citations since the department first started going after texters. Many residents are upset about the rule, with some saying that the ticket’s cost is too expensive and that they’re not causing a danger to others while walking down the street. What do you guys think?
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Raise your hand if you’ve ever used a cell phone created from a block of wood, like this MIT Media Lab dude, PhD student David Mellis. This thing even takes a SIM card! (ht The Verge; photos via Mellis’ Flickr page)
Frustrated with fellow bus riders incessantly talking on their cell phones, a Philadelphia man began jamming the cell reception to silence their conversations.
The NBC10 Investigators tracked down the cell phone zapper who targets talkers on a SEPTA bus route. Not only does he admit doing it, he thinks it’s a good thing.
The man, who calls himself Eric, told the NBC10 Investigators, “I guess I’m taking the law into my own hands and quite frankly, I’m proud of it.”
Not sure how we feel about this. Do you think it’s good that he does this?
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